Bambinata's Spell
by Hymntanra
Summary: Freud knows many languages, but when he comes across a book in an obscure Ariant language that Phantom knows and he does not, the thief offers his assistance. Mild PhantomxFreud, Fanfuri.


Bambinata's Spell

A warm breeze caressed light brown hair as it blew softly through the open window; Freud sniffed lightly, batting his bangs behind his ears. It was a fruitless endeavor; the strands quickly came loose from behind the pale skin to hang in front of his brilliant blue eyes again. The scholar controlled an annoyed groan; he couldn't get frustrated at something as simple as the wind, but it was awfully irritating when he was simply trying to read his books. Although…he glanced down and ran a hand across the two tomes in front of him, sighing with an audible tint of frustration.

He wasn't getting anywhere.

It was a tad bit humiliating that he, one of the top scholars in their world, was unable to make any process on something as simple as a translation. But Freud didn't recognize this dialect and he didn't recognize these words—he hesitated to admit it, but the intellectual brunette didn't even recognize the alphabet present in the text. It was an obnoxious task, especially considering that Freud could not even confirm that the book he had discovered in his library would be of any use to the Heroes. He had just unearthed it one day—it would have been of no interest to him if it hadn't come with a note from his previous mentor, Master Yoen.

A note detailing spells about time, and sealing.

To Freud, it sounded like a weapon—a powerful weapon, one that could be used to fell the Black Mage if they could not kill him. While he did not like the idea of not being able to completely destroy their dark hearted adversary, Freud also disliked the idea of leaving loose ends untied as well. He figured if they couldn't kill the Black Mage, they might as well find some way to keep him away from Maple…and this little book in this strange foreign language could help the Heroes with that task.

But this LANGUAGE it was in! Freud had never seen the likes of it before in any library. It didn't even look like it had been put together on a typewriter, but rather completely by hand. Like some person had sloppily written up every page themselves, stitched it together, and sent it off to make the scholar's life a pain. Freud groaned and rubbed his temples, telling himself to calm down—he was just frustrated from a week's lack of effort. He had made no signs of effort in translating the book and when he had brought it up to Yoen, he had said that he only knew what the contents of the book were and not what the actual lines meant.

A fine mentor indeed. …but as a small knock came against the wooden door of his study, it drew Freud's disgruntled attention away from the small book in front of him. Quickly the scholar snapped the book shut and rustled his study sheets to the side, striding over to the door to open it up by the brass doorknob slightly to see who lay beyond. Despite his intentions to only open the door slightly, Freud was blown backwards as Phantom impolitely pushed his way into the room with a carefree smile on his face.

"…Oh. Good evening, Phantom. Can I be of some assistance to you?" Freud asked carefully. Phantom had joined only recently, and all the other Heroes had been constantly aggravating Freud to watch himself around the thief. While the brunette understood their concern, he had never felt any fear around Phantom. In fact, he had generally found the thief to be fairly fascinating yet easy to control.

"Everyone has been wondering why you were locking yourself up in your study all week."

Freud groaned inwardly. Yes, he supposed they would have noticed that eventually. He had refrained from telling them about Yoen's note about the time spell in order to keep from creating false hopes. That, and for some unknown reason the others seemed to be less of a bother to him when he DIDN'T tell them he was working on something important. When Freud WAS working on a major spell or project, the other Heroes suddenly felt a burning desire to get involved. He figured it was just because they wanted to help, and while he respected their good intentions, Freud really needed the utmost quiet and privacy to work on the translation of the tome he had received.

But Phantom was giving him _that look_, the look that told him that the thief wasn't going to budge until he knew what was going on. That sly half smile where his purple eyes sparkled with a half passionate and half accusatory tone. Whenever Phantom had that expression on his face, he would not give in until he knew what he wanted to know or until he had what he wanted to have. It was likely the reason behind his immense success as a thief, Freud reasoned—a real _master thief_ wouldn't give up easily, and Phantom definitely displayed the stubbornness required for the job.

…and with the progress that Freud was making on the book, the scholar figured it couldn't hurt at this point to bring a third party into his investigations of the book.

"Well." He sighed. "I've been working on a project. A translation project."

"Translation project? Translations don't usually take you this long. Didn't you tell me you knew many languages?" Phantom interrupted.

"I do. A large amount. I learned them growing up. In fact, I learned almost all the major languages because spellcasting requires a vast knowledge of language at times. But…the book I'm dealing with now, I'm not familiar with the language in question." Freud admitted. Phantom quirked an eyebrow upwards; it was not like Freud to admit that he didn't know something. For him to say that meant that he must really not know, which was certainly an abnormality among the Heroes. Freud was generally the go-to person for any and all information.

"Do you know where the book came from?"

"Well, I got the note and book from Yoen. When I asked him about it, he said the book was located in the Ariant region. The Order that he belongs to bought it from the Queen for a hefty sum—she didn't particularly care about the book, he said, just about the gold that it could fetch her." Freud chose to not question the expression that crossed Phantom's face—it was an expression that he had thought was only reserved for the Black Mage and his generals. "I've been comparing it to all of the books from my Ariant collection, but I haven't managed to match it up to ANY language from the books I have."

"Beginning to get a bit annoyed, there?" Phantom chortled.

"…Perhaps a bit." Freud conceded.

"Have you considered that the language you are dealing with might not be a language that is commonly written down?" Phantom inquired. Freud raised an eyebrow, sending the thief an inquisitive look. The expression seemed to rise another chuckle out of the thief's throat. "Hear me out, now. I grew up in Ariant."

"Oh, did you?" Freud asked, his interest peaked again. This was information he had not before been privy to.

"Indeed. Perhaps I could take a look at this book for you? Considering what you've told me so far, I've got a pretty good idea of what you're dealing with here." Phantom said, holding out a gloved hand. Freud glanced down at it for a moment, then slid back over to his desk to dig the tome out of a pile of papers. Phantom raised a brow. "Are those all study notes about the book in question."

"Let's just say the information in the book could either be extremely valuable, or entirely worthless." Freud replied. "I have no way of knowing outside of a few things that my previous mentor told me about it."

"That Yoen guy?"

Freud glanced up at the thief; he was well aware that Phantom had been acquainted with Yoen via previous less-than-reputable exploits that the thief had indulged in. "…Yes. That Yoen guy."

"Mmh. I remember him. He wasn't a very friendly sort, but he certainly has some fine belongings." The words 'that don't belong to him anymore' rang nastily at the end of Phantom's words, but Freud didn't bother to press onto them. He tried to not harp on the other Heroes about their backgrounds if they didn't want to talk about it, or if their pasts were less than reputable and could cause trouble if talked about. So Freud just handed the book to the blonde haired thief. Phantom smiled gracefully and flipped it open, amethyst eyes flickering across the text with the speed that only a fluent reader could possess.

"I'm not surprised you couldn't recognize this language. This is the written language of the gypsies that originally came from Ariant. They go by a lot of names, both locally and within their own groups. But the most common name for their group is just the _Ageia_ gypsies_._" Phantom finally explained. "They prefer to not write down their words and stories—rather, they prefer to tell them via verbal storytelling. Almost all information is passed down via verbal storytelling and showmanship. Books are made, but not very often and usually they're done sloppily. You can probably tell how sloppily from how the text is written in here."

"I noticed that it was rather…handwritten." Freud replied.

"Indeed." Phantom mused. "They prefer it that way. More natural and down to earth."

"…I've heard of the _Ageia_, but not much is known about them because they're dying out and they're not very cooperative with scholars." Freud said slowly. "How did you know about the _Ageia?_"

"…This book is fairly interesting. I can see why the Queen charged your Master Yoen so much for it." Phantom replied, ignoring Freud's inspecting question. "It talks about an old story from the _Ageia_, about the Goddess Rhinne and her powers as a Transcendence. It details how she, with the support of truly powerful magicians, could create a 'barrier of time' that would completely freeze a pocket of space in one specific time period forever. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"This…could prove to be very useful, actually." Freud mused, sitting down slowly.

"How so?"

"Well…" Freud began. "…I've not said much about it so far, but it might become a necessary action to seal the Black Mage rather than kill him. While I would prefer he be eliminated, we can't be foolish and assume that we will win—we have to have a backup plan. My backup plan was to find a seal of some sort but I had yet to find a seal that was strong enough. But the power of the Goddess Rhinne…the power of a Transcendence…it really is a pity that I don't understand any of this language. It could be very profitable to our cause if I could translate it and use this as a weapon against our enemy."

"…It's not a hard language. It's not even my first language." Phantom said, leaning against the desk. Freud looked up at him and tried to mask his curiosity. "I grew up in Ariant, after all, so my first language is the language of the people in the city of Ariant. But at some point, I joined up with the _Ageia _and learned their language. If it's that important to you then I could help you learn it."

"I'd be very appreciative."

"…Hmh, well. We can start simple, then."

The language training went through several months. Freud was a quick learner, but he couldn't say Phantom had been truthful in saying it was an easy language to learn; it had its own specific inflections and dialects and tones that affected the meaning of what was being said. The same went for actions as simple as putting a dot in the wrong place next to a symbol on one of the letters. Freud was a scholar, though; he was used to inane rules and complex languages, so he picked up quickly.

Though he certainly didn't appreciate it when it his cheeks were grabbed at and squished in order to 'help' him form the words from his mouth better.

"MWAH-hara, not mahara." Phantom insisted. "KeYOS asra MWAH-hara. Not KEY-os asra mahara."

"Right, right." Freud said, smacking the hand away from his face. Phantom snickered but withdrew himself from the scholar's form.

"Oh, and, I finished translating the book." Phantom said flippantly, tossing a pile of notes into Freud's lap. The scholar stared at them blankly. His hands trembled as he went through each and every page of the neatly written out notes—it was, indeed, the book from earlier translated into English.

"I didn't ask you to—"

"I know. But I did anyways. That's just what I do."

"I didn't peg you as that helpful. But you taught me the language anyways? Why was that?" Freud inquired. "Not that I don't appreciate it, as not many people are lucky enough to learn about the _Ageia_ and their language."

"I like to watch you talk it, that's all." Phantom replied, simply.

"…If that is all…" Freud said quietly, folding his hands. He didn't state his question. He didn't need to; they both knew what it was, as Freud had been asking it ever since Phantom had begun to teach him the language.

"…When I left my noble family in Ariant…" Phantom began. "…I left with a mentor of my own, Raven. I don't know if that was his real name or not. But Raven was an _Ageia_ gypsy. I was young, so I was raised amongst his family members. Some of them didn't speak my language, and Raven wanted me to learn their language anyways. He said it would be good for me and it would be helpful in my future endeavors. Judging by this book, it looks like he could be damn right…_Bambinata._"

"Ba…mbinata?" Freud asked. Phantom laughed.

"Bambinata. It means 'little one'."

"I…I'm not particularly little."

"No. Only a few centimeters shorter than myself, actually." Phantom's laugh died down into a light chuckle as he showed the difference with his fingers. It was very little; the two men didn't have much difference in height at all. "_Bambinata _is a word that has dual meaning in this language."

"Is that so, Phantom? Do you plan to mess around all day or do you plan on telling me what it means?" Freud asked, tone deceptively calm. Phantom didn't as much as flinch; he merely smiled warmly.

"_Bambinata _means little one—it is also an _Ageia_ term of endearment." Phantom said, eyes half lidded in amusement. "A term of respect, closeness, friendship, and deep affection…because I don't give my knowledge away to people that don't deserve it, and I don't give my knowledge away to people whom I do not care for. Nor do I tell my past and secrets to people I do not consider as _Bambinata…_my _Bambinata_."

There were very few times Freud was left speechless, and that was one of them.


End file.
